Why deprive our best from achieving their dreams?

It has been a fact that the best non-bumiputra students don't necessarily get the courses they want in the public universities.

Every year around this time when STPM results were announced, there are always countless complaints from students who scored all As, yet still denied from enrolling in the preferred courses in public universities.

These are medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, engineering, law and accounting.

This has been going on for as long as anyone can remember.

Why is this happening every year?

Although it has been said that the enrollment system now is based on a merit system, most people just can't understand why then, straight A students are not getting the courses that they want.

Are the students that were accepted have better results? I doubt it. After all no one can score better than all As.

If so, are we depriving our country of having the brightest minds from pursuing their dreams?

No offence to those students who were accepted in these courses, but at the same time we may not be producing the best doctors, lawyers and engineers for our country. And that is a great loss.

Imagine if a young Lionel Messi, who was crazy about football, was told he couldn't be enrolled at a football school, but was told to play basketball; or an Usain Bolt being told to do the high jump instead of running the sprints, these sports would not have seen some of the greatest talents at their best.

These bright students who were told they couldn't be accepted to study the courses that they want certainly feel this way.

Remember how we go nuts about the world ranking of our public universities?

Denying bright students their place wouldn't help in this area either. These students could very well excel in doing research, or graduate to be leaders of their field and certainly enhance the reputation of the universities.

For example, MIT is known for producing great tech talents, lawyers and entrepreneurs from Harvard; the alumni help propel the universities to become the household names that they are today.

Having a two intake system for the students also creates confusion.

The government offers the STPM and matriculation. Most people think a student has a greater chance of getting to public university through the matriculation system.

If that is the case, I am not sure why the students bother going through the STPM system, which is known to be extremely tough, and no guarantee of a place in the universities.

Why not just keep one system to make the varsity intake fairer and more uniform.

The bottom line of all this is we are depriving our young minds a chance to do what they dream of.

Ultimately with the results that they have, there is a great chance countries like Singapore will offer them places in their public universities, even a scholarship.

A few years later when these students graduate, there is a good chance they may not return. More brain drain.

The funny thing is our government by then will probably try to lure back these people who were forced to leave the country by the same government in the first place.

And the cycle keeps going on.

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